The Supremacy Clause: The Constitution Is Supreme

Article 6 clause 2 of the Constitution is known as the Supremacy Clause. This clause in our Constitution is often misquoted, misapplied, and misinterpreted. Those who support an overgrown and supreme federal power like to use this clause to beat the States into a powerless submission to every asserted federal authority. Is that really what the designers of our Constitution meant when they placed this clause into the Constitution?

The Supremacy Clause reads:

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.

A plain reading of this text tells us several things:

This Constitution, shall be the supreme Law of the Land.

The Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance to the Constitution are the supreme Law of the Land.

Treaties made under the Authority of the United States shall be the supreme Law of the Land.

The Constitution, through this clause has been established as the highest standard of Law regarding the federal government. The Laws of the United States are below the Constitution. The Treaties of the United States must be made under the authority of the Constitution. As far as the federal government is concerned, there is nothing higher than the Constitution.

Alexander Hamilton explains the underlying principle of this clause in Federalist 78.

“There is no position which depends on clearer principles, than that every act of a delegated authority, contrary to the tenor of the commission under which it is exercised, is void. No legislative act, therefore, contrary to the Constitution, can be valid.”

James Madison explains in Federalist 45 that the powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined and those powers are to be principally exercised upon foreign affairs, such as war, peace, negotiations, and foreign commerce.

According to Hamilton, when the federal government exercises powers that have not been delegated through the Constitution, the acts performed through that unauthorized power are null and void. What that means is, if Congress passes a law and that law is not made consistent with the powers delegated by the Constitution, then that law is completely invalid. Thomas Jefferson reasserts this concept in the Kentucky Resolution of 1798:

“Whenever the general government assumes undelegated powers, its acts are unauthoritative, void and of no force.”

The Supremacy Clause codifies this very principle; that any law made by Congress that is not made in pursuance to the Constitution, is no law at all.

A law made by Congress that is not made pursuant to the Constitution, is not authorized by an expressly delegated power, it is not the supreme Law of the Land and the Judges in every State are NOT bound by it. The Supremacy Clause does not make every law of Congress, every act of Congress, every federal regulation, or every supreme Court opinion superior to State laws and State Constitutions. It is the exact opposite. The States agreed amongst one another to be bound by their mutual compact – the Constitution – not to subject themselves to every whim of their creation.

The Supremacy Clause, in fact, puts the federal government on notice that their every act is limited by the powers delegated through the Constitution. The Supremacy Clause is NOT a limit of State authority, it is not a statement of supremacy of the federal government over the power of the States. The Supremacy Clause tells those in the federal government that their power is limited by the Constitution and that the States do not have to submit to any imposed authority of the federal government that is not made consistent with the powers delegated by the Constitution, which the States themselves created.

About KrisAnne Hall

KrisAnne Hall is an attorney and former prosecutor, fired after teaching the Constitution to TEA Party groups – she would not sacrifice liberty for a paycheck. She is a disabled veteran of the US Army, a Russian linguist, a mother, a pastor’s wife and a patriot. She now travels the country and teaches the Constitution and the history that gave us our founding documents. KrisAnne Hall does not just teach the Constitution, she lays the foundations that show how reliable and relevant our founding documents are today. She presents the “genealogy” of the Constitution – the 700 year history and five foundational documents that are the very roots of American Liberty.

Comments

I wish that through a magic confluence of events, our president had chosen you as our Chief Justice. I believe that you could have made a huge impact and truly changed our course – to back inline with where we’re supposed to be.

Very true – as with any originalist-!!!
The death threats would be unending and quickly the court itself would either embrace or divisively reject such an adherence- dissolving into an open public civil war within.
This would be good as then the specific differences would come to light in the public arena and awakening people would be drawn to America’s true wisdom’s as given by the genius of OUR Founder/Framers.
Thus spotlighting the treasonous past “rulings”[opinions].
Which would collapse under public opinion-!!!
Clearly uncovering the Far-Lefts hatred for true Rule of American Law.
Then the People would have to choose sides and I believe it would be overwelmingly for the brilliance of OUR 3-Founding documents.
Suddenly most “Tory’s” would disappear in hiding, or leave the country as they once did before…
And good riddance to the statist parasites~!!!

Mrs. Hall, hello, I like what you have here on the Supremacy Clause. I would like to know if there is some type of letter that should be sent to the U.S. Supreme Court Justices to see if the U.S. Constitution is still binding in America. Does it help to have questions that one wants answered and if they don’t answer specific questions within 30 days of receipt of your letter, then what one may have stated in the letter is Tacit admission of the Judge(s) that what you have stated is true and correct. How can we as the people of America put a stop to the unlawful theft by deception of the IRS? Thank you for your time,have a great day, Roy

That the constitution is the supreme law of the land is indisputable. My problem, or should i say my misunderstanding is with the idea that federal statutes take precedence over the will of the people in the individual states. Statutes at times seem arbitrary and their enforcement a violation of individual liberty. An example of this would be federal gun laws which by their very nature appear to violate the second amendment. The supremacy clause is used to shove things down people’s throats leaving them without remedy. short of rebellion.

Check out Title 4 section 72 of the United States Code. It shows that all federal law applies only to the District of Columbia and not elsewhere unless the law in question specifically says otherwise. The US Constitution limits what federal laws apply to the People of the states. Thus very few federal laws will say they apply to the 50 states of the Union, because the Constitution does not give Congress the authority to legislate for the states except in very very few cases.

Most of the alphabet soup “appointed” agency bureaucRats are loyal to the U.N. oversight “Agenda’s” rather then America as Founded + Framed.
Seeing themselves as clandestine rulers now but hopes of absolute authority in the future as an elite oligarchial State power in a NWO.

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